Steve Scauzillo: Congress needs a lesson in the birds and the bees

Beekeepers, bird groups and butterfly experts spoke to members of Congress, their staffs and the media Tuesday at the Dirksen Senate Office Building about the alarming deaths of bees in this country and its potentially devastating effect on birds, butterflies and the agriculture industry.

Bees do more than produce honey. They pollinate one-third of the food on American plates. They are vibrantly necessary to our crop production.

And they are dying.

While honeybee populations have swung far and wide, scientists began noticing a frightening trend in the 2000s called Colony Collapse Disorder. Beehives get weaker, infiltrated with bacteria and disease and collapse. Many scientists and bee keepers say the problem is pesticides and herbicides in the plant tissue that interfere with the life cycles of honeybees.

They point to 1996 and the introduction of the home gardener's herbicide, Roundup. Next came another more widely used chemical, a group of pesticides known as neonicotinoids that are used by farmers to tamp down bug infestations and keep crop yields high.

These people are trying to convince Congress, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the European Union that many chemicals within this class of pesticides are killing bees, birds and butterflies.

The issue of neonicotinoids made big headlines for the past seven years. Why? Not because someone cared about the steadily decreasing monarch butterfly populations. No, because of the loss of viable beehives which are taken into the country's bread baskets to pollinate crops.

One such crop in danger is the almond crop in our state's Central Valley, which relies on bees for pollination.

So on Thursday, a group of professional beekeepers and farmers, as well as the Pesticide Action Network of North America, the Sierra Club and the Center for Environmental Health, decided they were tired of having their cries fall on deaf ears.

They sued the EPA in federal court in Northern California. They want the EPA to ban the use of pesticides clothianidin and thiamethoxam, according to Thomson Reuters. These pesticides fall under the category of neonicotinoids. When neonicotinoids get into the plant tissue, it becomes toxic to bees or other insects.

Makers of the pesticides, Bayer and Syngenta, say there's not enough proof that their products are killing the birds, bees and butterflies.

The European Union was ready to act last week but postponed, despite a recommendation to ban from the EU's European Food Safety Authority. The Authority said these pesticides posed "an acute risk" to the health of honeybees, Thomson Reuters reported.

Of course, the issue comes down to money, over science.

These kinds of pesticides are sprayed over 100 million acres of U.S. grown staples such as corn, wheat and soy. So getting agribusiness to adapt to a ban is like moving a mountain.

The European Crop Protection Association said after the vote: "Member States are aware that scientific evidence from countries where realistic field monitoring was done and risk mitigation measures are implemented showed that neonicotinoids can be safely used without unacceptable effects on bee colonies. The bee health decline is a multifactor problem as recently confirmed by scientists where pesticides are the last of their concerns. "

Even if there are other factors, it appears that these chemicals are one factor. It's the classic non-denial denial.

I can't wait to see what the U.S. EPA will say, or the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Having dealt with these two giant bureaucracies, I think I will have to wait.

Last, about those butterflies ... the Monarch population that usually makes it to Mexico this year has declined by 59 percent, the Associated Press reported. That's its lowest mark in 20 years.

Steve Scauzillo covers the environment and transportation. He's the current recipient of the Aldo Leopold Award for Distinguished Editorial Writing from The Wilderness Society.